


You are driving me crazy

by lilydreaming



Category: House of Anubis
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends, Drama, F/M, Family, Friendship, High School, Love, Sex, Step-siblings, Teenagers, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:35:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24900916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilydreaming/pseuds/lilydreaming
Summary: Alternative universe.After the marriage of their respective parents, Nina and Eddie's life changes dramatically. Between loves, disappointments, friendships, school, their life is intertwined with those of other students. Who said being a teenager is easy?
Relationships: Eddie Miller/Patricia Williamson, Mick Campbell/Mara Jaffrey, Nina Martin/Fabian Rutter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. I Just came to dance/Big fun

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my native language. I apologize if there are any errors. Please be kind, I hope you like this fanfiction.  
> With love lilydreaming.

"A toast to the newlyweds!"  
A murmur of response was heard throughout the room. Eddie looked at the bottom of his now almost empty glass, it was the second that was drained. It was all a farce, of course he was happy in his way for his mother, but was it necessary to go so far? Puffing he took the last sip of champagne, at least it was decent.  
Diane Miller was married to a second wedding with Martin, a widower with a teenage daughter. After the divorce with her first husband, Eric, the woman had tried to raise her only son with her own strength, until she met Mike, since then everything had always gone uphill.  
"Don't you think you've drunk enough for today?" Her new sister asked him, emerging from behind her shoulders.  
"Nah, one or two glasses, what difference does it make?" The boy declared.  
"Of course, from a single glass to alcoholism is a moment." The acquired sister replied.  
The boy rolled his eyes into the sky. " Don't you have any bridesmaid tasks to do Nina? "  
"No, but I have some sister duties."  
"What?" Eddie asked taking another sip.  
Nina took the cup from under his nose. "This."  
"Nina! What the heck? "  
“Your liver will thank you. You can't think about drinking for the whole wedding. "  
"Yes I can, nobody prevents me."  
"Yes, I am. Your mother asked me to keep an eye on you. "  
"Damned woman, she manages to keep me under control even at her wedding."  
"Come on Eddie, you can't stay here drinking all the time."

"You know what? You are right."  
"Oh luckily, you understand."  
"I go to the buffet table, will there still be those first canapes?"  
"This was not what I meant, forget it .."  
A few days after the ceremony, the two newlyweds got ready for a well-deserved honeymoon, albeit short.  
“So guys we left you some money for emergencies, and I stress emergencies. I also prepared dinner for you tonight, and in the fridge, you just have to heat it in the microwave. If you need help, call our neighbor, Mrs. Devenish. "  
“Ms. Devenish? But she's a creepy mom. "  
Diane sent a grim look at her son. "Eddie is not being disrespectful, she is a lady like many others."  
"Of course, that collects dead dogs."  
The mother sighed. Of course, their neighbor was somewhat unusual, but at least it didn't bother the neighborhood. "It's called taxidermy."  
"That which is."  
"Dear we have to go, otherwise we will lose our flight." He reminded her of her new husband loaded with bags.  
"Oh yeah sure, please guys."  
After the newly- weds left the house, Eddie gave a sly smile to his new sister.  
"Why are you looking at me like this?" Nina asked with an eyebrow raised.  
"We are finally alone in the house, what do you say?"  
The girl looked at him confused, she could not understand where she wanted to go to parry. "What about what?"

"Let's throw a party!" Eddie excitedly shouted.  
Nina's eyes widened “A party? Are you crazy?"  
"Come on, little sister, we only invite a couple of friends, I invite mine, and you invite yours, an intimate thing."  
The girl thought about it, biting her lip as she did it. "Ook, but only a few friends."  
"Done deal"  
A couple of hours later Nina returned from a commission, when she opened the door she did not expect to find the house was full of semi drunk teenagers, loud music, and unknown dudes making out on the sofa at home.  
"What the hell .." She muttered to himself  
"Hey Nina! You are finally back. ”Eddie said casually.  
"Eddie was supposed to be one thing among a few friends, it seems quite different to me."  
"I have many friends, I'm popular." The brother justified himself, drinking from a red plastic cup.  
"Don't make fun of Eddie!"  
A boy came over. " Big party!"  
"No, you're great!" Eddie replied.  
The guy staggered on his way ..  
"Who was that guy?"  
"I don’t know, never seen in my life." The boy I had invited a few people, who had invited other people, and so on .. Finding himself in a short time the house full of faces unknown to him.  
"Eddie!"

"Relax Nina, your friends are there too."  
The young woman gave him a grim look. "We will talk about it again."  
While Nina prevented the almost unknown broke her the house, even he thought a way to throttle Eddie, and then turn it away. The rest of the guests were happily enjoying themselves.  
Only one person seemed to be not having fun, Patricia. She rolled her eyes at the sight of two guys in it, she had come to the kitchen to avoid having to socialize with people she didn't care for a dried fig. Then he heard a voice, and to his great disappointment he recognized it.  
"Guys, not against my fridge, take a room instead." Eddie said.  
The couple left, in order to continue their outpouring elsewhere.  
"Yacker" the blonde uttered, before opening the refrigerator, and sprinkle a massive dose of cream spray in his mouth.  
Patricia moaned "You are disgusting!"  
Eddie ignored her "Why are you here? The party is over there"  
"I was trying to avoid people like you but it is easier said than done."  
"This hurts me." The boy retorted, pretending to take it.  
The redhead turned to him, giving him a somewhat annoyed look. "Do you want to leave me alone? Why are you here?"  
"I could ask you the same question, this is my kitchen, my home."  
"Technically it's your mother's house."

"Don't point out Trixie. Do you want a drink?"  
"I'd rather drain all the saliva and liquids I have in my body than accept a drink from you." Spit the redhead.  
"Come on, don't be difficult, I offered you drinks, not sexual services, but if that's what you want, all you have to do is tell me." Eddie declared, sending the girl a flirtatious look.  
Patricia snorted. "If I accept your stupid drink, will you leave me alone?”  
Eddie nodded  
The girl took the glass from the boy's hands, and took a deep breath, the contents. "Happy now?" To then leave, leaving the boy stunned, but at the same time amused.  
"You are strange, really strange."  
Jerome was watching, well mostly looking at a couple of girls. There were some nice ones, and above all that seemed available, he took a step forward towards the girls, but was stopped by his friend, Alfie.  
"I'll try it with Amber tonight, it's the right time I can feel it." Alfie had a crush on Amber since the dawn of time, if you may say so, but the princess Barbie, as she was called by the whole school, did not make so many compliments to snub every advance of the unfortunate admirer. "Dude how many times have you tried?  
“130 times, no 131, but this time it's different. "This time he was confident, too bad it was the previous times, but those who give up immediately lose at the start" Jerome turned Alfie in a specific direction. " you see it?" Said the friend, pointing his finger at an apparently empty spot.  
"See what?" Alfie asked confused

"Your dignity that goes away." Jerome replied teasing him.  
"I still have my dignity."  
"Really? Alfie has become a joke now. You try with Amber, and she systematically gives you the two of spades. "  
"Sooner or later he will say yes."  
"Wait and hope, hell is easier to freeze."  
"Do you want to bet? Now I go to Amber and ask her to go out with me. "  
The boy went to the aforementioned girl, who did not even give the poor man time to open his mouth, who refused him in a second dwarf.  
Jerome saw the whole scene from afar, bursting out laughing.  
Eddie went over to him. "What's so funny?" He asked with a laugh.  
"I laugh at yet another Alfie failure."  
"Still going to try Amber? Does that boy have a bit of love?" Eddie shook his head. He did not know if this whole situation was ridiculous, or simply absurd.  
Jerome shrugged, for him this whole situation was hilarious. "I think it all ran out for the blonde."  
"Do you know how she tries with me?" Said the other blonde, giving a whipped sigh.  
"Who? Amber?"  
Eddie rolled his eyes. "No, the blue fairy, certainly Amber."  
Jerome chuckled. "But don't tell me ... and have you been there?"  
"Nah would be too easy, and then she's not my type."

"I thought why I wanted to respect the bro-code. On the other hand, you would be easy with Amber."  
"Don't tell me ... did you have sex with her? " Eddie yelled.  
"Shh are you crazy? Do you want others to hear you?" "Anyway, yes, I've been to bed." He added later  
"Alfie will kill you, you know?" Eddie asked rhetorically, then continuing to drink his drink.  
"No, if I don't know, and then I did him a favor."  
"Oh yes? And how? Checking the goods?" Eddie said sternly, as if to scold him.  
"Do you prefer the new one? Fewer than half of the girls in this room are still virgin, and the rest are on the fact that they are. You are spoiled for choice."  
"Well, it's not that it's a great stimulus for me."  
"Uuh do you want to go difficult? Do you want to bet?"  
"Bet? We are not five years old Jerome."  
"Afraid to lose?" His friend teased him.  
Eddie snorted. "Sure why not."  
"Then I challenge you to go to bed with .." Jerome looked around, looking for a girl, or rather a victim to bet on. His gaze rested on a particular girl, and soon his face was covered with an evil grin. "The goth pixie."  
Eddie almost choked on the sound of that name. "Are you crazy? Patricia Williamson? That hates me! "  
"Afraid to lose?" The other boy grinned.  
"Not at all, I just have to avoid pissing her off." Eddie replied, after all that Trixie wasn't bad, she had a certain I don't know what.

Meanwhile, Nina was preventing her not-so-invited guests from causing too much damage. For now, four or five of them had already gotten into the stomach, and she had caught a couple having sex in her personal bathroom. The next day he would disinfect it properly. What shocked her most about that evening was seeing two unexpected people kiss. "What the heck ... Eddie and Trixie are making out, someone will end up badly, and it certainly won't be Patricia. "She murmured to herself if the young woman. The only way she ever thought those two would attack was the traditional one, and surely, her friend would have emerged victorious.  
"Hey Nina, someone just threw up in the hall..but those are Patricia and your brother?" Mara, one of her friends asked in amazement.  
The girl let out a moan. "Again? What the hell did they put in that punch? I'd better go get something to clean."  
"I would like to help you, but I have to go away." The blackberry was justified.  
Nina smiled at her. "Don't worry, why are you already leaving?"  
"Mick gives me a break at home, and since he has training tomorrow morning, he prefers to leave earlier."  
"Sure it's not because you want to be alone." Her friend teased.  
Mara blushed with embarrassment. "Nina! We haven't done anything yet, and then I intend to wait. "  
"Mara where did you get yourself?" Mick called her from afar.  
"Here is Mick! See you at school!  
"See you Monday! "  
Nina turned around and ran into a guy who punched him on the shirt.  
"I'm sorry I didn't want to." The boy apologized.  
"It doesn't matter, it was just an accident." Nina told him before dismissing him.

"Hey Fabian, what's going on?" Asked a girl with oriental features.  
The boy returned from the trance from which his earlier confrontation had brought him. "Joy do you know who that girl is?"  
"She's the owner of this house, if I'm not mistaken, her name is Nina."  
Fabian frowned. “I thought this was Eddie Miller's house. "  
"In fact, it is, it's his sister that."  
"His sister? They don't look alike at all."  
"They are half brothers, their parents have recently married." Joy explained  
"Understood, as I would do without you, that you update me on all the gossip that circulates in school." Fabian teased. His best friend was always well updated on what was going on at school, he preferred to devote himself to something else.  
"You would be bored to death without me." The friend replied in turn.  
"Already. You said her name is Nina. "  
In the meantime, a bet was about to be won in an upstairs room.


	2. "Rush/One thing I know"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> English is not my native language. I apologize if there are any errors. Please be kind, I hope you like this fanfiction.  
> With love lilydreaming

"Rush/one thing I know"

It took only a few seconds to fall into an endless chasm, lost in another dimension. The music gradually went down, the voices became only a buzz in the distance, almost as if they were miles away, until his ears heard no sound outside that square room. Dark, illuminated only by a dim light of a bedside lamp. The blue sheets beneath her curled, and her breathing became heavier and heavier, guilty of the warmth of that lamp that aimed straight at her, and the human warmth she sensed with each push. It was so strange, and at the same time pleasant. He folded his legs in a whirlwind of emotions, exploded suddenly, making her forget his thoughts too. Her breathing became more regular, and small drops of sweat covered her face. Then again the deafening noise covered her ears, and returned from that dimension in which she had thrown herself. She covered her naked chest with the sheets, holding them with one hand, looking with ferocious contempt at the back that stood before her eyes.  
Hearing her eyes on her, she turned to them. What he perceived was nothing compared to the hatred he saw in that instant.  
"Didn't you like Yacker?" He said with a boastful tone. If the looks could kill Eddie, he would have been dead long ago.  
"Shut that mouth," the redhead who resided in her bed answered through clenched teeth.  
"Did I go too fast?I don't think that you didn't like it  
"  
"We had sex, it doesn't seem like a big deal."  
"You.."  
"I used a condom, if that's what you want to know."

"Do you know what? Forget it, and do me the pleasure ... forget what happened, because this was the first and last time that you and I had such contacts." So saying he left the room, slamming violently the door, not before picking up her top from the floor, flown away during that madness.  
Once out of that room, tears streamed down her face. Patricia never cried, it was a rare event, but at that moment what she needed most was to drive away from her body all frustration, every weakness, and tears seemed the only solution.

Monday had come, and the students walked heavily all the way to the school.  
"Why can't we skip school?" Eddie complained. Tired even before starting. "Our parents are traveling, we don't have anyone who controls us."  
"They will also be traveling, but we must behave like two responsible people."  
"Oh yes?"  
"Yes, and then after the party you organized, and I stress you, I think we should have a low profile"  
"For a simple party with friends?"  
"I remind you that I had to clean up the messes made by your so-called friends, and that I had to negotiate with Mrs. Devenish to make my father and mother tell you about your phantom gathering of friends."  
Eddie laughed "What made that creepy chick make you do it?"  
"I have to help her with chores around the house."  
"Be careful I don't bother you," Eddie said laughing.  
"A-ah that's why you'll come too"

Suddenly the boy finished laughing " I hope you're joking.”  
"Not at all, you put me in trouble, and now you get me out of it." Nina firmly supported. Leaving his stepbrother in the corridor, to reach his first lesson of the day.

Four hours later, the bell for the lunch break rang, cheering the hungry students, who went en masse to the school canteen.  
"Finally how did the party go?" Asked Mara, taking a sandwich from the counter of the cafeteria.  
"All in all, well, apart from the fact that I had to ask my neighbor not to call neighborhood surveillance, and above all not to tell my father and Diane."  
"Were your parents not on their honeymoon?" Asked the brunette.  
"Exactly, a week in Hawaii."  
"And they left you alone? My parents don't even leave me two hours without super vision." Mara asserted  
"I am a responsible girl, and then my father and his wife trust me."  
"The girl who organized a clandestine party without the permission of her parents speaks." Patricia reminded her, who in the meantime had approached two.  
"Hey! It was Eddie who did it, I agreed to host a couple of friends, but my brother doesn't have a sense of proportion." The blonde justified herself.  
"If you say so"  
"By the way, at some point I never saw you again at the party, where were you Patricia?"  
What did she have to say? That happened in that room, it had to stay in that room. She decided to lie and say nothing. "I was around." She said with a shrug.

"You know you kissed Eddie?" Nina reminded her amused.  
Patricia crossed her arms over her chest. "So what? I was a bit shining, should I expect him to come and meet me with a bouquet of roses?".  
The two girls laughed.  
"No, but I thought you wanted to know, in case you don't remember it." Nina said.  
"Trust me, I don't forget that," Trixie said.

"So how did it go? Did you do it?" Jerome asked.  
"Hit and sunk," Eddie replied.  
"What are you talking about?" Alfie asked as she swallowed a piece of bread.  
"I bet with Eddie that he would be able to fuck Trixie Williamson, I thought it was impossible, but in the end he did it."  
"The same Trixie who spilled orange juice on Jerome's head in middle school?"  
"Yes, just her"  
"Wow"  
"How is it that you would have done?"  
"Well." Eddie came to mind three days earlier.  
He saw Patricia in a corner, she was talking to someone she didn't know. Determinedly he approached her.  
"Did you miss me Yacker?" He asked coquettishly.

The girl blurted out "You don't really know the meaning of personal space."  
The boy ignored her. "I like your hair"  
Patricia laughed without humor. "But really? I have the same hair I had less than half an hour ago, how come you didn't like it before?"  
"I was focused on something else"  
"Now you focus on something else"  
"Can't I compliment you?"  
"That's right, the only thing you can do and get out of your way!" The redhead railed against him.  
"What if I want to stay here?" The blond teased her.  
Patricia let out a whipped sigh, before taking him by the collar and printing an unexpected kiss on his lips. Eddie didn't even have time to metabolize what was happening because Patricia broke away from him after a few seconds. "You got what you wanted," she said, looking him in the eye, just for a moment, just the time when an adrenaline rush pervaded them, primordial passion ran through their bodies. Hot kisses were the only means of communication between the two. The breaths became more and more labored, and among the confusion they headed upstairs. As two automata reached a room to the right, they threw Eddie up on the bed, took off his shirt, straddled Patricia, and it all started from there.  
"I used my charm," Eddie said once he returned to the present.

For weeks, he had seen her walking down the school corridors, laughing and joking with her friends, waving her long dirty blonde hair. Looking at her from a distance, never daring to approach her. How could he? It seemed so unattainable, far from him. He was startled when he saw her turn towards the direction she was in, smiling. She was so beautiful when she did it, her green eyes lit up when her mouth curved. His little world collapsed, he wasn't smiling at him. Someone else had drawn his attention, nothing special in his opinion. He lowered his head disheartened, he could never have entered his bubble of perfection.  
"Good morning!" Shouted a voice from behind him, making him jump.  
"Joy! Damn you made me take a hit!"  
"I simply said goodbye to you, you were absorbed in who knows what" The brunette justified herself, putting a small pout on her face.  
Fabian softened his gaze, as if he were in front of a little girl who is forgiven for any prank.  
"What were you looking at so carefully?" The girl asked him.  
"No, nothing important" replied the brown man, but his mind was still focused on her. He had to find a way to get closer to her, going to talk was out of the question, maybe he could.  
"Planet earth calls Fabian! Hey! Fabes are you there?" Joy called him insistently.  
"Er yes, you said?"  
Her friend looked at him worried, it was not like Fabian to be so distracted. "You melted this morning, are you sure you are well?"  
"Sure, did you need something?"

"Can't I say goodbye to my best friend with a big and warm greeting?" Joy asked, showing a toothy smile.  
"Joy, I know you from kindergarten, I know when you want something." Fabian will say after taking a deep breath.  
"Okay, well, I need you to correct my English essay." Confessed the blackberry.  
"I thought you had no problems with this matter."  
"Indeed, it is so, but Andrews said that this essay affects 70% of the final vote, and I don't want to risk it."  
"Okay, I'll take a look at it"  
"That's why you're my best friend"  
"Why am I correcting your homework?"  
Joy chuckled "No, well yes, but not only, it's because you never say no to me."

"Will you come to the game tomorrow?" Mick asked his girlfriend. During the hour change, and the two were leaning in front of the lockers.  
Mara bit her lip. "Tomorrow?" She asked hesitantly  
"Yes, tomorrow evening at six, will you come?"  
"Well, I should study."  
The boy rolled his eyes towards the sky, puffing exasperated "it's the most important game of the championship, and you prefer to stay at home studying. I thought you supported me"  
"I do, only that ..."

"Except that what you do is more important than what I do? Is that what you mean?" Mick railed at her. Why did he always have to diminish what he did? Did he care about their relationship or not?  
"No. I'm sorry, I'm so caught up in my school career that I've lost sight of the most important thing, you," Mara confessed before kissing him, leaning on the lockers.  
"Take a room!" Jerome shouted making them jump.  
"Clarke." Mick said. He did not like Jerome, he was looking at too many girls, even those already engaged, including Mara.  
"Campbell" Jerome replied. "Do you mind getting out of my locker?"  
"The girl moved" Oh sorry, I didn't think it was your locker "She apologized.  
Patricia was quietly walking down the corridors when two arms grabbed her and carried her to the girls' bathroom. "What the hell!"  
Yes she found Amber Millington in front, aka the barbie princess.  
"I can very well go to the bathroom alone, thanks!" Patricia said once she freed herself from her grip.  
But the blonde ignored her completely, starting to rail against Patricia. "Do you think you can have it? Is that so true?"  
"What the heck are you talking about?" Asked the other confused girl.  
"Don't pretend to be dumb! You know what I'm talking about"  
"Er no, I don't sail in your head"  
"Stay away from Eddie"  
"And who is close to him."

"You're always around him, and he's mine," Amber said, crossing her arms over her chest, like a capricious little girl who absolutely wants her favorite toy.  
"I'm dating his half-sister, he's the one who goes around me. And since when would it be yours? Don't stay together!"  
"Yes, only he doesn't know it yet"  
Patricia burst out laughing  
"What are you laughing at?"  
"You are really ridiculous." If only she knew what Eddie had done sex with her, she had foolishly granted herself to him, giving him the most important thing, her virginity. How stupid she was.  
Suddenly the redhead was surprised by a sudden nausea, which forced her to go to the nearest toilet.  
"You won't think you can get away with it! I'm not done with you yet! Ew but are you throwing up? Don't throw up while I'm talking to you!"  
"Shut that Amber beak!" She railed Patricia against her.

Nina opened her locker, and a note fell at her feet, bent over to pick it up, opened it and read the contents: It was a poem for her.


	3. "Pretty boy/ The day you came"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my native language. Please be noce

"Pretty boy/The day you came 

She stayed in that bathroom for what seemed like hours. Closed in those narrow walls to reject the soul too. Her throat burning, burning, as if inside she hid a volcano ready to erupt. What a horrible feeling she felt. She was alone, Amber was gone, perhaps to devise a way to get closer to him, make him fall at his feet. Being able to go to bed, experience an immense pleasure of a few seconds. Or she would never have tried it, pretending to allow him to reach the climax, and everything would have ended with bad oral sex, just to best end a shabby fuck. She rinsed his mouth, several times, to eliminate any trace of that bad feeling, then looked up at the mirror, saw its reflection in it. She didn't like what she saw, she seemed so weak and fragile.  
When she left, she was overwhelmed by the horde of students who were going to their next lessons, too busy to see, to worry about her, how she was, and how she felt. How disgusting to be alone.

Nina read and reread that note does not know how many times, opening and folding it until almost consumed. There wasn't much written, only a few lines, written in clear and simple writing, it seemed almost written by typing keys on a keyboard. Perhaps written right here, in the school, in the computer room, or simply sitting on the steps of the entrance with a laptop resting on the knees, with headphones on the ears, listening to soft music, not like the deafening and noisy one that listened to her brother, music that echoed between the walls. No, it was nothing of the sort, surely it was so, it had to be a serene melody that inspired those sweet words. She wanted to know who the author was, thank him, talk to us, but there was no sign, no clue to understand who he was.  
"What is that leaflet you read?" Eddie asked, sitting down next to her.  
"Nothing," replied the girl.  
"Oh yes?" He stole the offending ticket from her hands.

"Give me back Eddie!" The girl screamed trying to get the ticket back.  
Eddie ignored her. "Let's see what it says."  
"Eddie! Give it back now!"  
"And why should I?" Asked the boy with a grin.  
"Because they are not things that concern you." Nina retorted, determined to get her ticket back.  
"Don't you think I should know who is making the thread to my sister?"  
"Who told you they are trying with me? And even if it were, it's none of your business"  
"Yes, I am, because ..." he was interrupted by a hand that hit him in the head, and who took the ticket, and returned it to the rightful owner.  
"Thanks Trixie," said Nina  
"If you can't wait to get your hands on me, Yacker, all you have to do is tell me." Eddie said, sending an accomplice glance to Patricia.  
"In your dreams, Weasel!" Replied the redhead sitting down on the opposite side of the blonde.  
Nina shook her head, those two were incorrigible. "Sometimes I think you two will end up sooner or later"  
"When the donkeys fly," Patricia asserted.  
"Ah I guess they have already taken flight"  
Eddie was hit in the knee by Patricia's kick.  
"Is there anything I don't know?" Nina asked, looking at the two.  
"No, nothing," they replied in unison.

The crowd was delirious, there were only a few minutes left until the end of the second half, and at the end of the game. The end result would have guaranteed the school team access to the semifinal.  
"Here is Campbell who runs the wing, took possession of the ball, dribbles the opponent with ease. A moment, ladies and gentlemen, Campbell is on the ground!"  
Mara got up suddenly hearing the words of the reporter, so other people did like her.  
"The referee calls the foul, red card for the opponent!" The referee announced, while Mara headed for the bench worried about Mick.  
"Can you move Mick's leg?" Asked the Mister.  
The boy tried to move his leg, but excruciating pain stopped him. He gritted his teeth to hide the pain. "I'm fine Mister"  
"Don't say nonsense, I see that you're suffering." Replied the Mister.  
"But .." the boy continued.  
"Nothing but, you're hurt, you don't have to make any effort."  
Mick smiled. "Mara you came.  
"Of course, I couldn't miss it." The girl answered smiling.

That same evening Patricia locked herself in the bathroom, waiting for something that would perhaps change her life. Looking forward to its future.  
A plus had appeared on that damned stick. Her first reaction was to hide the incriminating object inside the shirt, then he would think about the rest. Sure but when? How long could she hide this new secret from her? It took her more than ten minutes to get out of that bathroom. Crying out.  
"Does Trixie still take time in that bathroom?" Her sister asked, knocking on the door.  
Patricia wiped away her tears. "I'm going out!" She shouted  
"Are you OK? You spent ten minutes in that bathroom. " Her sister asked worriedly.  
"Can't I even stay in the bathroom as much as I want Piper?" Patricia railed against her.  
"Yes you can, but. And where are you going now? "  
"I'm going to Nina" replied the redhead.  
"At this time?"

Once At Nina's house..  
Nina found her friend outside the door, looking anxious. "Patricia? What are you doing here at this hour? "  
"Is Eddie here?" Patricia asked, ignoring Nina's questions.  
“No, he's not here, he went to his father tonight. Do you need something?"  
Patricia was silent for a while. " Nothing." and thus saying he went away.

Months had passed since Patricia had taken the test. She had not disclosed her condition to anyone except Eddie. It had been a shock, he refused it, denied any responsibility for the child, washed his hands, abandoning his son's mother to her fate. From that day the girl began to wear loose-fitting clothing, to try to hide the shapes that would come to her in the coming months. Too bad that clothes could not hide all the fear and anguish he felt. She was carrying a creature on her lap, how could she handle it? What future would he/she guarantee? Perhaps adoption was the only solution.  
"Hey Trixie what do you think then?" Nina asked her. Patricia and Mara were then at the blonde's house.  
"Yes, as you say," replied Patricia without paying attention.  
"Patricia sure you're okay? You're a little absent-minded lately." Mara declared, her friend seemed so strange in recent months, almost absent  
"Yes, I'm fine, a marvel."  
"Maybe. Anyway, I got another note from my secret admirer today," Nina said radiantly. In the preceding months her admirer had continued to put them in her poem cabinet, but had found no clue as to who the author might be.  
"How many poems have you written so far?" Mara asked her with dreamy eyes. Ever since Mick was injured, the romance between the two had collapsed downhill like a roller coaster. Not being able to play had turned him into a neurotic and plaintive being, and being locked in the room certainly didn't help him improve his mood.  
"Many, really too many, I'm really curious to know who wrote it. Even now it's time to show off, after two years have already passed."  
"Maybe he's an old pervert pedophile, have you thought about it?

"Patricia!"  
"What is it? What did I say wrong? Look, he might even be a stalker, or he's Victor, the school keeper," the redhead said laughing.  
The other two girls burst out laughing.  
"Please no, I can't have a crush on Victor!" Nina declared again with tears in her eyes.

Eddie leaned against his locker, puffing. "Heck, Amber stressing me out!"  
"Still trying to do it with you?" Jerome asked with a laugh. This was a fun situation.  
"Yes, keep sending me glances, and sending me pictures of yourself"  
"Are you sorry about this?"  
"Well up to a point, but I don't care, I'm not attracted to her at all."  
"And who are you interested in?"  
Eddie was silent for a while. He took a sigh, and then. "Ok, some would be there, but only because I was already in bed."  
"This is what narrows the list."  
"I would be interested in having sex with Patricia again, but she is now off limits."  
"Off limits? I don't think she goes out with someone, and even if he were, it wouldn't be a big deal."  
"It's not for that. She hates me, she would rather see me dead as a stone" Eddie remembered their last meeting, and what he had said to him. He could never have approached Trixie without risking chemical castration.  
Jerome whistled. Do you even see him dead? Of course, he was also blacklisted for some girls. Some time ago an anti Jerome club was also running. "Well she hated you even before, but you have been in bed anyway".  
"This time is different" Already this time it was completely different. The first time had been an almost unstoppable impulse.  
"It will be. Anyway, take a ride on the carousel in Amber, once you have done the ride you will be interested in a next horse. Trust yourself once he has satisfied his desires, he will no longer consider you, he did so with me" He shrugged another blond. He did not notice, however, that someone had listened to the whole conversation ..  
"What have you done?" Alfie asked, looking at Jerome threateningly.  
"Alfie."  
The boy slings his best friend by hitting him "You fucked Amber!  
"What's the problem? It's not your girlfriend!" The blond was justified.  
"She is the girl of my dreams, and you deflowered her!"  
"Oh come on Alfie I was not the first"  
"That's not the point! It's damn Amber! You know how I feel about her, but no you didn't care!"  
"Look I'm sorry, okay?" Jerome apologized. His apologies seemed sincere, he had really hit bottom, and Alfie really looked so furious.  
"I don't care about your apologies!"  
"What's going on?" Cried a teacher. "You two in punishment! He added, pointing to Alfie and Jerome.

Fabian brooded for a long time, before deciding whether to show himself to Nina. He stared at that locker, waiting for something to stop him from making too hasty a gesture. Maybe he had to leave it alone, stop sending those poems, and continue as if nothing were his life, so much Nina wouldn't have noticed her absence.  
He sighed, Nina was there, and without even realizing it her feet moved towards her.  
"Hi, do you need something?" Nina asked, moving the backpack over her other shoulder.  
"Nothing"  
Nina looked at him closely, staring straight at him. There was something about this boy that struck her, that attracted her, but she didn't know "It's you, right? You wrote those poems to me"  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." The young man tried to justify himself, but was there really a need to do so? After all, he had done nothing wrong.  
"Offending me? And why should I? I really liked your poems."  
Fabian blushed.  
"Do I know you? You are in my own literature class, you are always sitting by the window."  
"I'm Fabian"  
Nina gave him the hand pleasure to meet you Fabian, I am Nina, but you already know this "  
Both laughed heartily.

"You promised me wouldn't tell anyone about my situation." Patricia whispered outside the door of the school counselor's office.

"In fact, that's right, I have a friend who works as a social worker, she can help you" replied Mr Winkler, the school counselor.  
"I don't need any help, I can get by on my own!"  
The young teacher, well liked by all the students, tried to calm her down. Her pupil needed support and comfort. "Patricia you need help, wait for a baby."  
In the shadows someone listened to their conversation. Is this how the goth pixie was pregnant? This is news.  
The redhead sighed "Are you right, can you call your friend for me? I'll give the baby up for adoption".

"Since you want to come to your hands, you will use your energy by helping the theater course prepare the scenography for the year-end show."  
"Couldn't he inflict another punishment on us? What do I know, writing a thousand-word theme about why it's wrong to come to your hands?" The theater course was hell, especially in the rehearsal period. You know when you enter, but not when you leave.  
"Yes, otherwise he could end up sleeping with someone else's dream girl here!" Alfie verbally assaulted him, he was still angry, or rather not furious with his now best friend. How could such a thing have done to him.  
"You are more useful here," said Mrs Andrews, ignoring the two boys' pleas.  
A girl came up. "Did Mrs Andrews bring new members? Squee!"  
"They are here in punishment, they came to hands. Here they can consume their energies by doing something useful"  
The girl put her hands to her mouth, as if she were shocked. "Oh dear! Come on I'll teach you breathing exercises to calm your anger" So saying he dragged Alfie who knows where.  
"Willow we need manpower, not purified people!" A girl shouted from the stage. She was holding a brush with which she was painting a stage set, perhaps a tree.  
"Joy, take care of Jerome, make sure you're working hard." Andrews said.  
"Don't worry, I'll make him slap it!" Joy replied.


	4. "Sail on through/new direction

"Sail on through/new direction

The news went around the school in less than no time. Patricia felt everyone's eyes on her. Whispers and giggles reached his ears. Every step she took in that corridor seemed like torture, like a long way to the gallows.  
She opened her locker, and was overwhelmed by dozens of condoms. Hilarious, the school was full of idiots, with this gesture she had confirmed it. She closed the cabinet slamming it violently. Someone knew, everyone was now aware of her secret. She ran to the exit,s he could no longer stay there.  
"Mara have you seen Trixie?" Nina asked worriedly to her friend. For months, she had noticed unusual behavior in her friend, in loose clothes, skipped lessons, avoided raw food, but could never imagine a pregnancy. She would speak to her, certainly help.  
Mara shook her head negatively. "No, I haven't seen her. Do you think that's true? Is she really pregnant?" Se said the last sentence in a whisper, as if he wanted to prevent those ignorant few from knowing.  
"The blonde bit her lip." I don't know, in short, she would have told us. I didn't even know She had a boyfriend. "  
"I am worried about you, I try to call you" She typed the keys, and put the cell phone in his ear, heard two empty rings. "Don't answer"  
"Where did she go?"

Jerome did not think he would like to help the theater course in setting up the scenography of the show, for the company it is clear. Since he was in punishment, he came home with more clothes stains than he could have in a paintball game. He played there every second Thursday of the month with Alfie, in the woods, near the former military base. We both liked that place. Yesterday was the set day, last time he promised his friend two minutes of advantage for the next game, but there was no game, he knew if there would be in the future.

"What happened between you two?" Joy asked, distracting him from his thoughts.  
"It's a long story "  
The girl sat next to him "How about giving me a summary?"  
"I thought I was being punished, not a recovery center."  
"Basically it's the same thing, just that we don't take guest's progress into account here."  
"Ah no? And to think that I had improved with painting" Jerome joked.  
Joy laughed "oh but I take that into account"  
"Well, now I'm feeling under scrutiny." He said they can paint the brush inside the can of paint.  
"I was making fun of you! Tell me about it"  
The blonde took a long breath before he started talking. "I fucked up"  
"What kind of bullshit?"  
"I was in bed with my best friend's crush, well maybe I should say ex best friend." The boy confessed. By a stupid gesture he had lost his best friend.  
Joy thought about it before answering. "Yes, what you have done is a huge carrion."  
"I know, Alfie was so taken with her, that he didn't understand that Amber isn't suitable for him. Alfie is strong, she wouldn't appreciate him as he deserves." Jerome declared.  
"So you had sex to prove a point to your friend?"  
"A thing like that.."  
"Don't you think he should find out for himself? In short, you can't always protect his shoulders, sooner or later he will have to find out firsthand when a person is right or not for him"

"What you say makes sense, it's a pity that he was so blinded by his crush that he didn't understand."  
"Well next time make it burn"  
"Thanks Joy"  
The girl shrugged. "Nothing"

Nina was at home at the time, sitting on the sofa, exchanging text messages with Fabian, when the bell rang.  
"I'm going!" She shouted standing up.  
She opened the door, and found himself in front of Patricia. Afraid and with a big mark on the face.  
"Can I stay here for some time?"  
"Sure, come in." Nina made her sit down. Only later did he notice a bag at the redhead's feet. "Trixie what happened?"  
"I'm expecting a baby, my parents found out, my father hit me, and kicked me out of the house."  
"Then the rumors going around at school are true."  
"Yes, I don't know how the news came out."  
"Why didn't you tell us anything?"  
" I was scared ok?" cried the redhead. He had been wandering the city all day, away from prying eyes.  
Nina rubbed her back gently. "Everything is alright."  
"Thank you"  
"Where are you at?"

"I'm in my twentieth week."  
"Do you already know what to do?"  
Patricia nodded. "Yes, I will give the boy up for adoption. Mr. Winkler made me talk to a social worker."  
"I'd give it away then."  
"Yes, what other choice do I have?"  
"What about the child's father? He also has a say."  
"He doesn't want to know about it, neither about me, nor about the baby."  
"Oh Trixie," Nina said before hugging her.

Fabian stared at his cell phone, Nina hadn't answered his messages for a while, did he have to worry? He didn't want to look like one of those nagging guys who call you 24 hours a day. He was probably busy, like him, on the other hand. He and Joy had been in that room for hours now, studying for the math test, which Mr. Perkins had set for next Thursday.  
"How much do you get to the third equation?" Joy asked, looking up slightly from her squared notebook.  
"-5" Fabian replied without taking his eyes off what he was doing.  
The girl wrote the answer in her notebook. "And the fourth instead?"  
"Joy .." admonished Fabian. "At this rate you will never pass if I keep telling you the answers"  
"Come on Fabes, I'm not so bad at math ... I still have a c+."  
"Of course a B+." Fabian teased.  
"Hey! A C+ is more than dignified!"  
"Okay, I get it. Pause?"  
Joy gave a moan of satisfaction. "Oh yes please. I have numbers dancing before my eyes.

The boy smiled "I think I made you study too much today."  
"That's right! Anyway, did you know the last one?"  
"Is this another gossip Joy?"  
Joy rolled her eyes, but still decided to ignore her friend's future reproaches. "Do you know Patricia Williamson?"  
The boy nodded. "Yes, in elementary school we were in the same class."  
"Yes, it’s her, at school there is a rumor that she is pregnant, and that she has no idea who the father is."  
"It seems completely absurd to me, in short, Patricia does not seem to me the type who goes to bed with the first one that happens."  
"Even for me, there are certain rumors at school ... according to some, the father would be a college boy, for others of one he met during a hot night in a bar, and other stories like that"  
"Some people should learn to do their own business. I already knew it anyway, Mick told me about it when I gave him repetitions."  
"Mick Campbell?  
"Yeah, his folks asked me to give him some repetitions until he recovers the accident."  
"Isn't Mara your girlfriend for that? She's always better at school than you are."  
Fabian snorted "tsk we have the same average. Mick says Mara is a distraction."

When he got home that evening, he didn't expect to see Patricia sitting on the sofa in her home. A bag was placed at his feet. She didn't notice his presence, she was absorbed in her thoughts, she touched her stomach, almost involuntarily. His belly was swollen, he had kept it.  
It came back to my mind that evening of months ago. It was a night just like this, returning from one of his usual weekly dinners with his father, made of Takeaway and orders from the local rotisseries.  
Patricia was sitting on a bench, a few steps from her home. When he saw it, he got up, I was waiting for him.  
"Yacker, what are you doing here?" He asked on the pretext of flirting with her.  
But the girl ignored her attempts to approach. "I have to tell you something." She looked agitated, looked around, as if afraid that someone would listen to what she wanted to reveal.  
Eddie looked at her to urge her to speak, but the girl did not speak. "Listen if you have nothing to tell me don't waste me time" So saying, he turned and started walking.  
"I'm pregnant!" She shouted making him turn.  
"What?"  
"I'm pregnant" repeated the redhead more calmly.  
"Should I care about it?"  
"Yes, since it's yours"  
Eddie's pupils dilated, a sign that the news had troubled him. It looked really amazing "Mine? Don't try to fool me, I used protection when we had sex"  
"Well it mustn't have worked, and I know for sure that the baby is yours, I haven't had any relationships outside you." She said showing him the pregnancy test.  
The boy looked at him closely, immediately noticing that there was a plus. Bleached He wasn't lying at all. "Whatever it is I don't care, do whatever you want," he blurted out.

Patricia looked him straight in the eye, trying to figure out if she was lying or not. "Are you abandoning me? Damn Eddie I'm expecting a son from you! Do you understand this?"  
"I don't care! Neither the child, nor what you will do with it, and I don't care about you!" Eddie ranted immovably, he probably hadn't realized, or was simply rejecting reality.  
"Go to hell Eddie!" Patricia said to him in her own tone, barely holding back her tears.  
And here she is in the present, sitting.  
"What are you doing here?" He asked her by turning her around.  
"My parents discovered it, everyone discovered it." The redhead muttered avoiding her gaze.  
"I repeat the question to you, what are you doing here?"  
Patricia rose to her feet in a fit of anger. "Do you really want to know?"  
"I just asked you"  
"My father sent me away from home, I didn't know where to go, so I came here. And I didn't come here for you, you are the last person I wanted to see! And above all I would have asked for help. I will at least make you , I don't need you, okay? "  
"Well!" He shouted. Leaving her room.  
"Hey, what's going on?" Nina asked as she entered the room.  
"Nothing, nothing happened." Patricia replied. Nothing had happened, since he didn't count for anything anymore.  
"Was that Eddie?"  
Patricia nodded  
"But what's wrong with him? Yelling at you in these conditions."

"Nina I'm fine, in this regard I take away the trouble, I don't want to cause too much trouble."  
"What? Not at all! You will stay here for as long as you need, even for the duration of the pregnancy if necessary"  
"But.."  
"Nothing but, I've already talked to Diane and my father about it, they have no problem hosting you." Nina said to her with a slight smile.  
Patricia sighed resignedly. "I can't tell you no, is that so?"  
"That's right, come and I'll get you my bed for the night."  
"I can also sleep on the sofa"  
"Don't say idiocy! You can't sleep over there, think of the child."  
"The child" the girl touched her belly. She had spent all those months in hiding, who only now had understood that there was a little creature growing in her.

The next morning Patricia woke up in a bed unknown to her. The sun was already high, and judging by the noises he heard downstairs, they were all already awake. Slowly he went down the stairs. They were all there for breakfast, Nina, that stupid Eddie, and their parents.  
"Darling, you woke up! Did you sleep well? Do you need something?" Sweetly asked Mrs. Miller, despite having married again, had kept her maiden name.  
"I slept very well thanks Ms. Miller"  
"I believe it! How long you slept!" Eddie declared as he snapped waffles on the fly.  
"Eddie! Oh call me dear Diane too."

"Ok." Patricia answered sitting down at the table.  
"Do you need anything? Milk? Cereals? Eggs? Or do you prefer Wafles? We also have pancakes if you want." Professed Nina. Ever since she learned that her friend was expecting a baby, she had become hyper worried.  
"Nina, relax, I have breakfast as usual."  
"Do you have nausea or something?"  
"Nina darling, those are only the first two months. Patricia shouldn't be suffering anymore, that's right, right?" Declared her stepmother.  
The redhead nodded.  
"Oh I understand. So do you have any particular wishes?"  
"Nina I'm fine, stop worrying about me"  
"I'm going," Eddie said standing up.  
"Already? "  
"Yes, I have things to do." Lied Patricia knew it was her fault. His presence made him uncomfortable. It was a monitor of what he had done, or rather what he hadn't done.  
So between prying eyes, inconvenience, and embarrassing silences, another two and a half months passed.  
Patricia had become accustomed to being in that house, between Nina's constant worries, and being ignored by Eddie, well not so ignored, since she sensed her eyes on herself, wanted her. How ironically, perhaps this situation could have her benefited. 

It was a summer afternoon, and they were alone in the house. It was the perfect opportunity to implement his plan. For the occasion, she had worn shorts that barely covered her bottom, all covered with a large printed t shirt. He knocked on his door several times, but had no answer, until he heard his footsteps approaching. He opened the door with a bored expression, his headphones resting on his neck.  
"What's up?"  
Patricia did not reply, jumped on him and snatched a kiss from him. The boy responded almost mechanically to that sudden kiss, it was pleasant, until common sense took over.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?"  
"Look I'm in a hormonal crisis, I need to have sex!" She said, taking off his t-shirt, showing a delicious bra worked in lace.  
Why did you look for me?" Asked the stunned blonde. It was generally one of his repressed dreams to find a girl in the bedroom looking for sex, but that was not how he had imagined it.  
But Patricia seemed determined, she would get what she wanted. "After what you've done to me, this is the least you can do"  
"No way!" Eddie yelled. This situation was becoming ridiculous, even though he liked it unfounded.  
"Why?"  
The blond rolled his eyes. "Why? Look at you, you're huge"  
"Shock, I hadn't noticed!"  
"Look, I won't do it with a pregnant girl."  
"It won't hurt the baby, on the contrary."  
"That's not the point."  
"Don't give me the ball you're not attracted to me, I see it, I feel it you want me."  
"You are insane."

"Shut your trap." She ordered before throwing himself on him, making him fall on that bed, the same one in which time backwards they let off that irrepressible impulse. It was simple and pure sex, no bonds, if feelings.  
"Eddie listen ..." Nina opened the door without knocking. "Oh my God! I haven't seen anything!" She said covering his eyes.  
"Don't you knock on this house anymore?" Eddie asked with a grin.  
The stepsister, however, ignored him, attacking him without giving him the opportunity to reply. "Damn Eddie, she is pregnant! Couldn't you have stayed?"  
"She was the one who jumped on me! Don't blame me." The blond justified himself, after all he wasn't entirely wrong.  
Nina looked at Patricia for confirmation, the redhead nodded smiling then satisfied. She had got what she wanted.


	5. "Fool no more/Don't tell me you're sorry"

"Fool no more/Don't tell me you're sorry"

While Patricia spent her pregnancy in the home of her best friend, between Eddie's prying eyes and the worries of the future grandmother, far from the tragedies and problems that only her friends could cause. How had they spent these months? Let's jump back to find out.  
"So how's Trixie doing?" Mara asked Nina. The girl was truly amazed by the news of my friend's pregnancy, as she was the last person in the world she would have thought of pregnant. But when she had seen her with that small swollen belly, she seemed so radiant and beautiful as to remove any doubt about it. One thing was not clear to her, however, and not only to her, but also to many other people, who the father of the child was. She certainly knew that Patricia was not the type who went around having sex with anyone, like those stupid gossip that went around school, plus the redhead had repeatedly refused the advances of her schoolmates. On the other hand Mara with the help of Nina often introduced the topic "father of the child" the waiting girl often changed the subject, or pretended not to understand. Perhaps it was easier and less painful for her to pretend that there was no father, but who could be so insensitive and immature that he would not take on his responsibilities by abandoning his pregnant girlfriend? Mara didn't know who he was, but she would surely tell him fifty reasons why he was a horrible person if he ever met him.  
"Well, she complains that she can't see her feet," Nina replied chuckling, remembering every time Patricia complained, that she was big.  
"Has your belly already grown like this?"  
"Well you know what Trixie is, grumbling is his trademark."  
The two girls laughed.  
"Do you want to visit me this afternoon?"  
"Sure, okay after school?"  
"I can't, I have to go to Mick after school."

The blonde raised a mischievous eyebrow. "Special private lessons?"  
"No, nothing like that!"  
"Have you ever thought about sex? After all, you've been together for a year"  
"Several times, but I've always refused"  
"And why?" Nina asked.  
Her friend shrugged. "I don't know, maybe I'm afraid. I love Mick, but I don't feel like taking this step."  
The blonde nodded. "Understood, the important thing is that you feel safe."  
"Yeah, by the way, you and Fabian?"  
"It's still too early between me and Fabian!"  
"I'm not just talking about sex, how are things going between you?"  
"Wonderful! We've been dating for a couple of months now, and he's so sweet!"  
"Aww I'm so happy for you"

"Hey Joy!" Jerome shouted to the little girl in the corridor, making her turn.  
"Hi Jerome, how's it going?" Asked the radiant girl.  
"Great, what about you?"  
"I'm happy, but I'm fine too."  
"Well! Listen, I wanted to thank you."  
The brunette frowned in confusion. "Thanking me? And for what?"

Without you I would never have make up with Alfie."  
"You cleared up then! I'm glad," Joy said smiling.  
"Already"  
"Tell me how it went."  
Jerome began to tell him how he had recovered Alfie's friendship.  
That day Jerome had gone to his ex best friend's house with an envelope full of sweets in one hand, and good intentions and apologies in the other. He knocked on his door. Seeing who he was, Alfie was tempted to slam the door on his face but Jerome stopped him pleading. "I know you want to slam the door on my face, I know, I would do it too if I were you, but first let me talk. I was an emeritus dickhead doing what I did, I swear to you that if I could go back I would prevent myself to do that huge, gigantic shit. I apologize to you from the bottom of my icy heart, do we really want a girl to come between us and our ten-year friendship? Let's go back to being Jerome and Alfie, the incredible duo! "  
The door closed, the blonde lowered his head resignedly, when he heard the sound of the padlock, and the door opened.  
"You already convinced me to dickhead, but I wanted to make you suffer a little more." Alfie confessed.  
"You.."  
He nodded to him. "Come on in, are Marshmallows in that envelope for a moment?"  
"Who did you get me for? Of course, you do!"  
The two boys had regained their friendship.  
"You know what? I don't think I have a crush on Amber anymore." Alfie declared as he swallowed the tenth Marshmallow of the day.  
"Oh yes?"  
“Yeah, I kissed her, don't ask me how or why, it's a long story, but I haven't felt anything. I thought that if I kissed her I would have heard the fireworks, but instead there was nothing.” The boy confessed. He had wanted Amber so much that he didn't realize that after all he wasn't the girl for him.  
“Wow”  
“Oh yes, and then now I like another one and I think I like her.”  
“Old fox! And who is she?" Asked Jerome curiously.  
“It's Willow from the theater class"  
“The happy hippie?"  
“Just her." Alfie confessed with a big smile. Willow was so cute, adorable, and laughed at all her jokes, even the most absurd ones.  
“When will you thank me then? You met her thanks to me!” Jerome teased him.  
“Oh don't hope for it!" Alfie replied laughing.

"It went exactly that way." Jerome finished telling, watching Alfie laugh and joke with Willow, she was perfect for him.

Mara walked to Mick's house. Her parents were out of town. Mick's father was a doctor, and often attended medical conferences, and his wife willingly followed him on these trips.  
The brunette bent to pick up a key hidden inside a vase on the porch of the Campbell house. By now he knew the hiding places of that house well. She opened the front door, was extremely silent, went up the stairs to go upstairs. She heard noises coming up, opened the door of Mick's room, and found him in bed with another girl. The girl was shocked, almost paralyzed.

"Mara! I can explain!" The boy caught in flagrant tried to justify himself, but the girl had already run away in tears.

"How could he do such a thing to me?" Mara said between sobs as she ate a bowl of cream ice cream with Nina and Patricia.  
"Men, good only to fuck." Declared the redhead swallowing yet another spoonful of chocolate ice cream. These cravings were killing her.  
"Trixie!" Nina warned him by nodding her towards a tearful Mara.  
"What did I say wrong?" Patricia mumbled again with the spoon in her mouth.  
"Do you have a little tact?" Nina asked her.  
"Sorry, I have hormones gone mad." Patricia justified herself, since she was on hold, hormones were her perfect excuse for everything.  
"I had given him everything." Mara declared in tears, perhaps she had to be submissive towards him, and give him what he wanted.  
"Well not really everything"  
Nina rolled her eyes.  
"What would you like to say? That I had to give it to you as you did to who knows who?"  
Patricia's face stiffened "Are you giving me a slut?"  
"I don't know, it's not me who got pregnant with a stranger!" Spit the poisonous brunette.

The redhead spilled what was left of her chocolate ice cream on her head. "Go to hell Mara!" She shouted at her before leaving.  
"Trixie wait!" Nina said chasing her.  
Patricia took refuge in what had now become her bedroom.  
"Trixie, Mara didn't mean what she said .."  
The redhead ignored her. "It's Eddie, the father’s baby ." She confessed in tears.

Nina repeated several times in her head the words spoken by Patricia, like a mantra, the words echoed in her mind, a lot far. Eddie, his half-brother had done this. How had he not understood that? The constant glances, the unpleasant jokes they addressed, the discomfort they felt towards each other, and the absences. The truth was a few paces from her, literally a wall away, in the room next to hers, the same one he was in now, regardless of what he had done. How could he have done such a thing?  
"Eddie?" Nina asked once recovered from the state of shock.  
Her friend nodded.  
"How. When did it happen?" She asked shocked, still incredulous at what I had discovered.  
Patricia took a deep breath, it was time to speak. "Do you remember the party that organized the day your parents left for the honeymoon?"  
The blonde didn't answer, but she knew exactly which particular party she meant.  
Patricia continued her story though. "Well remember that at some point I was gone?"  
"Yes.."  
"I wasn't gone, I was with Eddie, in his room, and I don't know how we did what we did, and then we went back downstairs as if nothing had happened. I lost my virginity that evening, I wasted mine first time for him, and you know what the most ridiculous thing is? I liked it! " She said with a laugh without humor. "I'm so stupid, look how reduced I am," she added looking at her belly.  
"No, you're not stupid," Nina said taking her hand.  
"Do you really think so? Look at me I'm expecting a child because of my stupid choices.  
"It's not your fault at all, at least not in part. There were two of you to do it, and now it's right for Eddie to take on his responsibilities, whether he wants to or not."

"No, absolutely no."  
"Why? Do you want me to go unpunished for what he did to you?"  
"Nina will give this baby away, we will both continue with our lives, and this whole story will be only a memory" Supported the redhead, now adamant on this decision, but was she really convinced of that?  
"And you let it end like this? By abandoning your son?"  
"I am not abandoning him, I am giving him the opportunity for a better future, a family that can give him everything he deserves, and that I can never give him."  
"How can you be sure you can't offer him anything?"  
"Are you kidding me? Look at me! How can I take care of a child alone? It's ridiculous."  
"You are not alone, we will help you, and I will make Eddie do it too." Nina declared before getting up and heading like a fury into the next room.  
The redhead tried to stop her, but in vain. "Nina no!"  
Nina opened the door, actually knocked it down.  
"What the hell ... you don't knock in this house anymore? Privacy has become a utopia." He uttered chuckling, then continued doing what he was doing, not caring about Nina.  
The stepsister approached him, and stamped the five fingers on his face.  
The boy touched his aching face. "Ahi! What the heck is wrong with you?"  
"Trixie told me everything, how could you? You got my friend pregnant and then abandoned her to her fate!" Nina yelled furiously.  
"Listen, she did it all by herself, I didn't even think the baby kept it!" Eddie tried to defend herself.  
"This doesn't make you less guilty Eddie! Damn it's not one of your usual stunts, there's a kid in the middle! Do you understand this?"  
"I didn't want this kid, and she doesn't want it either."  
"She wants him! Kind of stupid!"  
"You're wrong, She wants to give it up for adoption, that's what she wants, and it's better that way."  
"How can you be so stupid? Patricia desperately wants this child. But she's too afraid, and she thinks she can't do it." He took a deep breath. "Look, I'm not asking you to love Patricia, because I know it may sound absurd, but take on your responsibilities."  
"At what price? If what I want doesn't count?" Said the boy. Everyone talking about what Patricia wanted, but no one who talked about what he wanted, the ego made itself heard.  
The stepsister sent him a dirty look. "Do you know what? Do what you want, so much time is wasted with you, but don't use Patricia anymore to satisfy your whipped boy's cravings."  
After what happened, Nina told her parents that Eddie was responsible for Patricia's pregnancy. The attempts by his parents and his friends to convince him to change his mind were futile, he had made his decision. Just as Patricia would have given her baby up for adoption. One day, however, beliefs collapsed. The same day he had his baby. It was a difficult and painful birth for her, but never as much as knowing how to separate from that chubby adorable baby. She desperately wanted it, wanted it to be hers alone, hers and no one else's, but she was terribly alone.  
"Congratulations, it's a boy." Nina said to Eddie comfortably himself on the couch, as if nothing had happened. The girl walked towards her room, but suddenly she turned behind her face. "You should go and see her, you would seem less asshole." She declared, then continued on his way.

When he entered that room, he found her lying on his side, he didn't even know what he was doing there. Seeing her in that fragile bed shook him. He approached her slowly, almost as if he didn't want to be heard.  
"What are you doing here?" Asked the redhead still lying and facing her side. He understood that it was him from his steps, from his breaths.  
"How are you?" Eddie asked.  
Patricia turned around. "Are you kidding me?" She shouted furiously. How could he ask her how she was after all she had done?  
"I'm sorry," murmured the boy.  
"I'm not making any of your apologies Eddie."  
Eddie ignored her. Looking around for something, or rather someone. "Where is he?"  
"Do you really care?" The girl spat acidly. Ridiculous, really ridiculous that he only cared about her now.  
Eddie didn't answer. He could not do otherwise, he did not even know what to say.  
"It's at the nursery." The redhead said, and then she didn't hear him again, he had gone who knows where. Did she really care, where had he gone? No, he could do what he wanted, he didn't want to force him to stay, nor to make decisions he didn't want. By now what was done.  
Eddie was tempted to leave, get out of that hospital and never go back, but something stopped him, changed direction, heading to a specific wing of the hospital. He recognized him immediately, he had the plate with L. Williamson written on it. His certain surname, he had not recognized. He watched him carefully through that glass. With her funny expressions, her plump cheeks, her mouth that slowly opened, muttering who knows what verse. He seemed so small and fragile, but at the same time strong and stubborn. He was his, but because of his selfish behavior he had lost it. Was it still possible to go back? Go back to his steps? Maybe it wasn't late yet.  
"Don't give it away, please don't." Begged Eddie to Patricia in disbelief.


End file.
